Aiken’s Fermata Club to get improvements with state grant
AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Aiken’s historic Fermata Club is a pillar of the community, hosting swim and tennis teams, as well as renting out its large gym to schools for formal dances.
Over the last year, Fermata Club shut down the sale of the club’s five acres over the course of three votes.
Now, the club is looking to grow bigger and better to better serve its community.
The club was previously set to be sold last summer.
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“We were made an offer by a developer and the considered it, and we had a couple of votes over the summer that we, the , decided the process wasn’t quite right,” said Claire Cunningham with the Fermata Board of Directors.
So, they put a pause on the decision.
“Voted again in December, and in that vote, decided 88 to 16 to keep the club owned by ,” said Cunningham.
Now, they’re working on improvements.
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“We also were awarded a grant from the Historic Preservation State Grant Fund in the fall,” said Cunningham.
The grant is for repairs and other upgrades.
Paige Rabon with the Fermata Board of Directors said: “We did experience a fire in April 2023. It was arson in the backroom. The damage was mostly in that backroom. So, the building itself was not condemned so we didn’t lose our occupancy.”
“Our pool has a beautiful new surface. We have six tennis courts here and we have one that’s been recently resurfaced and we’re working on resurfacing more of those tennis courts,” said Rabon.
Susan Aldridge has been a member of the club since she was a kid.
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She says the pool holds special memories.
“We practiced about three months out of the year. We just would hop on our bikes and go there for 7 a.m. practice in the morning. And in the evening, we returned about 7 p.m. at night, we started again,” said Aldridge.
Aldridge says she’s relieved the club isn’t being sold.
And the goal is to make sure more people can make some of those same memories.
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“We’re hoping for at least 200 . Right now, we have about 160,” said Aldridge.
“All the children in Aiken can learn to swim there and we are not expensive. I want single mothers to be able to . Single fathers, people that don’t have two incomes, that’s our goal,” she said.
The Fermata Club says they hope to continue to rent out their building for community use, like weddings and social dances from the local schools.
They say they’d like the Fermata Club to be part of the community, and that’s the goal behind the new improvements.
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